Tales of Westeros and Essos
by Asteria
Summary: Drabbles looking into the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. Updates Mondays. The Kitten Incident.  Please note rating change
1. Jorah

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Jorah

_Unworthy_

They fled in the night like thieves, though they took no more than they needed.

Jorah left Longclaw on his bed, with a letter requesting that his aunt send it to his father on the Wall.

Would she send it, or would she keep it for herself, and pass it to Dacey in time? The women of House Mormont were no less fierce than the men and his aunt might see fit to claim it, as the mistress of Bear Island.

He only hoped that whoever got Longclaw was worthy of such a blade, because the gods knew he wasn't.


	2. Viserys and Daenerys

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Viserys and Daenerys

_Words_

" 'Dragon.' Say 'dragon.'"

Viserys waved the shiny dragon brooch in Dany's face, yanking it away when she reached for it.

"No," he said, getting angrier by the moment. "You can't touch it until you can say it, Dany. Now, say 'dragon.'"

"Iseris."

"No, 'dragon.'"

Dany reached out and touched her brother's face, gently, as though he would bite.

"Iseris."

Viserys let the shiny brooch fall slowly, his purple eyes wide with astonishment.

"Are you trying to say 'Viserys?'"

Dany nodded, pleased that her brother finally understood.

"Iseris," she said again.

Viserys started to laugh, and Dany laughed with him.


	3. Brienne

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Brienne

_Unrequited_

They think I do not know.

It truly does not matter to me that my lord's heart belongs to another. Whether he knows or not, my heart belongs to him, and always will. He was the first man to be kind to me with no hidden purpose. He has no interest in my inheritance or my maidenhead. He is kind to me because he is kind.

I know that I can never have him, but it enough for me to serve him and prove my devotion with my sword. It is worth any heartache just to be close to him.


	4. Arya

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Arya

_Black Snow_

On the way back, wheeling her empty barrow, something the Black Brother said catches up with her.

"Lord Commander Snow," he'd said.

She feels a jolt, like a stab, in the place where her heart used to be, and stops short. Could he have meant Jon Snow? _Her_ Jon Snow?

No. Arya Stark's Jon Snow, not hers. She is no one.

Besides, Jon went to the Wall not two years past. He hasn't been there long enough to be Lord Commander. And there are probably half a hundred Snows on the Wall. The Black Brother must have meant someone else.


	5. Cersei

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Cersei

_Honor Bound_

Father's face is solemn as he sweeps the Maiden Cloak- red velvet with a lion of hammered gold- from my shoulders, and Robert's face is equally unreadable as he replaces it with the cloth-of-gold Bride Cloak. He is handsome in his way- dark where Rhaegar had been fair- and every daughter of every noble house in Westeros wishes she stood where I do now. I look over and see Jaime standing with the other Kingsguard and I wand to run to him and beg him to take me far away.

But I am a Lannister, and Lannisters do not flee.


	6. Viserys

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Viserys

_Inflammable_

The face he shows is that of the dragon because he cannot let anyone see that he is made of straw.

When his hosts begin to suspect his true nature, he flees; dragging her behind him, telling her the Usurper will kill them both if they stay. She follows because she must, and because she sees him as gold, not straw.

She loves him. He doesn't understand why. How could a dragonet like her love a straw man like him?

Too late, he realizes she doesn't truly love him. She was only waiting to burn him. Straw burns so easily.


	7. Bran

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Bran

_Above_

Every day, he climbed higher than he had the day before.

Trees or walls, it didn't matter, as long as he kept going up. Above everything the whole world was his, as far as he could see. He wanted to visit the Wall and stand above the mountains and the snow, and then go to Oldtown and climb the High Tower and stand above the sea. Maybe someday, if he climbed high enough, he would be able to see the whole world- Dorne and Asshai and the Summer Isles.

One day, if he climbed high enough, maybe he would fly.


	8. Margaery

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Margaery

_Close Your Eyes_

"I'm sorry," your new husband says. "I don't think this is going to work."

You look over at him, lying next to you in the bed. Down in the great hall, the feast continues, but you can't hear it. The two of you might be the only people in the world.

"A king needs an heir, Your Grace," you say.

"I know that! I know I need an heir…"

You lean over and kiss him, gently and somewhat awkwardly.

"Just close your eyes," you say, "and pretend I'm him."

And you will close your eyes and pretend he isn't pretending.


	9. Balerion

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Balerion

_The Price of a Dragon_

These humans were so stupid.

They thought that this great den was theirs, but it was his. He alone knew every passage, every secret door; he alone went everywhere. He knew more than they realized.

He knew the man with the black manticore was the one who had killed his girl, and that the yellow-cat men had told him to do it. He would have his revenge on them, the manticore man and the yellow-cat ones. He was a dragon, like his girl had been.

The yellow-cat men always paid their debts, and they owed him for his dragon girl.


	10. Renly and Loras

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Renly and Loras

_Forever_

"You should leave," said Renly as they lay together, after, arms about each other.

Loras raised himself on one elbow, the moonlight silvering his hair and the lines of his body.

"You want me to leave?"

"Of course not. But if we're discovered…"

"I know. People wouldn't understand. Shall I… shall I come back? Tomorrow night?"

Renly pulled Loras into a kiss, long and sweet.

"Tomorrow night," he whispered against his lover's lips. "Tomorrow night and every night. Forever."

"Forever," Loras repeated, and then slipped away, like a beautiful shadow.

The bed was cold without him, and far too large.


	11. Daenerys

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Daenarys

_Mourning_

That wasn't what I wanted.

Viserys was cruel, and I hated him as much as I loved him, but I did love him. He was my brother, my only family. My blood.

The tears I could not shed when he pleaded and screamed boil out of my eyes and scald their way down my cheeks. I might be crying fire. I do not move, but I feel Rhaego twist in my womb, sharing my grief for my brother, another uncle he will never know.

Viserys had no fire, but he was my blood.

In the end, he called for me.


	12. Jon

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Jon

_My Lady_

Father found him in the godswood trying not to cry.

"What's wrong, Jon?"

"I just wanted to see the baby," he said, sniffling. "Robb got to hold her, and all I wanted to do was look, but Lady Stark said I couldn't. Why does she hate me? I didn't do anything to her."

"But I did," said Father. "And it's easier for her to blame you."

"That's not fair."

"I know. Life often isn't. You're young to have to learn such a hard lesson. All we can do is behave honorably, and hope that others will be honorable as well."


	13. Hodor

Hodor: Hodor hodor. Hodor hodor.

Hodor

_Hodor_

Hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor.

Hodor hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor. Hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor. Hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor Hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor hodor Hodor hodor hodor hodor Hodor Hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor. Hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor- Hodor hodor Hodor hodor hodor Hodor Hodor.

Hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor, hodor hodor hodor hodor.


	14. Stannis

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Stannis

_Passionate_

His brothers were men of bold passions. Robert's passion for beautiful women was sung about from the Arbor to the Wall, and Renly's passion for beautiful men was whispered about for that same distance. His brothers reveled in life with no thought for the consequences of their actions.

Stannis' passions were law, justice, right. Quieter passions, to be sure, but no less intense. He had learned as a boy that the world was cruel and chaotic, that a man could have his home in sight and still be taken by the sea.

Someone had to set the world to order.


	15. Bronn

Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing

Bronn

_On Names_

I know what I've done.

Without Tyrion Lannister, I'd still be a sellsword of no importance, Bronn son of no one. Now, thanks to him, I'm a knight with a highborn wife (who's no more interested in being bedded than I am in bedding her, gods be thanked.) I would not be where I am now if I'd not stood for him in the Vale. Taking the dwarfs gold was the best decision I've ever made.

Folk can call it a jape if they like, but I owe that Imp, and Lannisters aren't the only ones who pay their debts.


	16. Robert

Disclaimer: not mine, just borrowing

Robert

_Regrets_

Dying changes everything.

I regret so much. Did Rhaegar have regrets as he died on the Trident, or was it over too quickly?

I should have been a better father, a better husband, a better brother. A better king.

Ned was right, curse him. Starks always are, in the end. Winter always comes, and that Targaryen girl has never done anything but exist. The Dothraki won't cross the sea.

Gods, I wish this wound would hurry up and kill me.

I won't have that girl killed. I killed her brother, mine own cousin.

I will not be a kinslayer twice.


	17. Myrcella

Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing

Myrcella

_Last Wish_

I kneel before Joffrey, not as a sister to her brother, but as a princess to her king.

"Please, Your Grace," I say, looking up at him, "be kind to Tommen. He is only a little boy and you frighten him sometimes."

Joffrey's face darkens and I draw back. Have I gone too far? But then he smiles and says:

"For your sake, sweet sister, I shall try."

His smile is all teeth and does not reach his eyes. It is a lion's smile, and I do not trust it. He may try, but I fear he will not succeed.


	18. Sansa

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing.

Sansa

_Bastards_

A lifetime ago, a girl called Sansa Stark had had a bastard brother. She'd liked him well enough when she was little- he had held her hands as she learned to walk- but as she grew she distanced herself from him. She was too much her mother's daughter to do otherwise.

Jon Snow would never know how much he had taught Alayne Stone. How to politely swallow casual insults from people whose birth was higher than your own. How to stay silent, to see without watching and hear without listening. How to survive as a bastard in a noble house.


	19. Joffrey

Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing

Joffrey

_Curiosity_

The fat cat is easy to catch.

Yesterday, one of the servants told Joffrey that the cat is so fat because there are kittens inside her, just like Tommen had been inside Mother.

Joffrey catches the cat with a dish of milk, and pets her and scratches her ears until she purrs and rolls onto her back. Joffrey scratches her belly, and then he gets his dagger.

The servant was right. There are kittens inside the cat, seven of them, no bigger than mice.

Joffrey is very clever to find them.

Father will be so proud of his clever son.


End file.
